Congress leaders confident of winning trust vote

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) Leaders of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) exuded confidence Tuesday that they would comfortably win the trust vote, irrespective of the chaos that reigned inside the house during the debate on the motion. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said: “We are confident and we are comfortably home.”

He told reporters that the Congress-led UPA were somewhere near 280 - eight more than the magic halfway mark of 272 in the house of 542.

Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal added with a glint in his eye: “You will know very soon.”

Congress leaders were also upbeat that rebel MP Ambareesh, a popular actor in Karnataka, would vote with them.

“We will celebrate tonight,” said a Congress MP from the southern state.

The two-day debate ends Tuesday with a vote on the trust motion that will decide the fate of the Manmohan Singh government, reduced to a minority over differences with the Left parties on the India-US civil nuclear deal.